EMPIRE PARLIAMENTARIANS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19347, 6 December 1924, Page 5

EMPIRE PARLIAMENTARIANS.

TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA. VISIT TO DELAG 0A BAY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) PIETERMARITZBURG, Nctober 25. The Empire Parliamentarians, now without the last of the British members, Sir Robert Hamilton, M.P. for the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and Viscount Burnham, arrived at Lourenco Marques (Delagoa Bay) from Pretoria on Saturday last, and, for a change, had the experience of a day almost without speechmaking. There was a brief ceremony at Government House, where Dr Morcira Fanesca, on behalf of the Portuguese Administration, gave the party a very cordial welcome to the Province of Mozambique. His Excellency’s welcome was felicitously acknowledged by Sir George Fuller (Canada), who dwelt upon the long existing friendly relations which had developed between the Portuguese and British peoples. AT POTCHEFSTROOM. The delegates spent Wednesday, October 22, at Potchefstroom, the old capital of the Transvaal. There Major-General Sir Granville Ryrie, M.il.R. (Australia) spoke at the civil luncheon on behalf of the delegation. The general said that the delegates had been greatly impressed by their visit to the Government Experimental Farm and School of Agriculture at Potchelstroom. The results of the crossbreeding of Africanders and Sussex cattle had been a revelation to him, as was also what had been done in the matter of wool production and the breeding of stud rams. Sir Granville emphasised that the future wealth of the country lay in the wool industry. He found that the Western Tranvaai was eminently suited for wool production, and yet it was only carrying one-tenth of its sheep capacity at present! In Merino sheep would bo found the future wealth of the country, with wool as its staple product. South Africa, too, needed a preferential tariff for the development of young industries. Sir George Foster (Canada) also responded. AT THE DIAMOND FIELDS. The Empire parliamentarians spent the following day, Thursday, October 2d, at Kimberley, wheio they were hospitably entertained. There was a public reception in the City Hall so early as 9.i6 a.m., and during the. morning the distinguished visitors inspected the great De Beers’ Diamond Alines, viewed a galaxy of diamonds at the De Beer’s head office, and inspected the war memorial. A civic luncheon was followed by a visit to the Magersfontein battlefields, reminiscent of tho Boer Wax of a quarter of a century ago. There was a dinner in the evening at the Hotel Belgrave, and the delegates left the following morning for Capetown. THE TOUR A GREAT SUCCESS.

Sir Howard D’Egville, secretary of the United Kingdom branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association, and who has been with the delegates during the whole of the tour, stated to the press, before leaving yesterday for England, that the tour had been an unqualified success. The tour ends next week. Sir Howard D’Egvillo emphasised his verdict particularly from two standpoints; First, that representative men, each of the Parliaments of the Empire, had been able to learn a great deal at first hand of South Africa’s problems, and thus would bo able to appreciate South Africa’s position and wishes in all inter-Empire discussions of the future, particularly the information gathered regarding the Native and Asiatic questions, and the prospects of agricultural and 'industrial development and white settlement had been most illuminating. Secondly, that the South African parliamentarians by meeting and discussing the common problems with their visitors from other Parliaments both individually and at the informal conferences hold during the tottr, had been able to understand something of the point of view of public men of the other nations of the Commonwealth. At one of the conferences held in Southern Rhodesia it had been their privilege to offer the Parliament of Southern Rhodesia, as the latest self-governing community a place in the activities of the Association of Parliaments.